The capability of a company to absorb external information is crucial for companies, since knowledge is largely considered as a highly valuable source of competitive advantage. Accordingly, an increasing number of publications dealing with this issue have been performed. A plethora of academic...

This paper focuses on French SMEs and studies their main characteristics regarding knowledge-capital formation and valorisation. We put forward what we may call a “French Paradox”, expressed by a quite important effort in terms of R&D investments and poor results in terms of innovation as...